Weather report: Mild conditions across the northern Plains

In the West, cool weather accompanies widely scattered showers from California to the southern Rockies. In contrast, very warm, dry weather in the Northwest favors fieldwork and crop development.

On the Plains, dry weather is promoting fieldwork. However, mild weather across the northern High Plains contrasts with chilly conditions across the remainder of the nation’s mid-section. Freezes were noted this morning as far south as eastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas.

In the Corn Belt, dry weather has returned to the upper Midwest. However, locally heavy showers are falling across the Ohio Valley, closing a window of opportunity for corn planting that lasted several days.

In the South, scattered but locally heavy rain showers are mostly confined to the interior Southeast. During the past 24 hours, parts of western North Carolina have received more than 4 inches of rain. However, generally dry weather prevails across the Deep South, from Texas to Florida.

Outlook: A slow-moving storm currently centered over the southern Appalachians will drift across the MidAtlantic region by mid-week and into northern New England by Friday. Additional rainfall totals of as much as 2 to 4 inches can be expected in the Mid-Atlantic States. Meanwhile, a new area of unsettled weather will begin to evolve across the Southwest. The developing system will produce scattered showers and thunderstorms from California to the central and southern Plains. Early- to mid-week rainfall could reach 1 to 2 inches across central portions of the Rockies and Plains. Late in the week, as the storm shifts eastward, potentially heavier rain will erupt from the western Gulf Coast region into the lower Ohio Valley. For much of the week, warmth will be confined to the northern one-third of the U.S. After mid-week, however, warmth will expand across the eastern half of the U.S. and persist in the Northwest. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for May 11-15 calls for above-normal temperatures across the northern High Plains and the West, while cooler-than-normal conditions will prevail in most areas along and east of a line from Texas to Minnesota. Meanwhile, below-normal precipitation across the northern and central Plains, upper Midwest, and Southwest will contrast with wetter-than-normal weather in the Northwest, from the southern Rockies to Texas, and throughout the South and East.